A child rights advocate and counselling psychologist, Ms Joy Oladejo, has urged the Oyo State Government to establish a joint identity registration system to ensure that children in institutional care receive legal identity documents.
Oladejo made the appeal in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Ibadan.
She proposed a coordinated framework involving the Oyo State Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Inclusion, the National Population Commission (NPC) and the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to facilitate timely registration of children in orphanages and welfare homes.
According to her, the lack of coordination among the relevant agencies has left many children in institutional care without birth certificates or National Identification Numbers (NIN), even after spending several years in care.
She acknowledged the efforts of many orphanage operators in providing care for vulnerable children despite limited resources but stressed that they should not bear sole responsibility for securing the children’s legal identity documents.
Oladejo said the registration process should begin as soon as a child is placed in institutional care through the Ministry of Women Affairs, the family court or the police.
“If these agencies work together from the point a child enters institutional care, the burden of obtaining legal identity documents will no longer rest on orphanages,” she said.
The child rights advocate also criticised the implementation of the Oyo State Child Rights Law, 2006, noting that although the legislation guarantees every child the right to a name, nationality and birth registration, enforcement has remained inadequate.
She argued that the absence of sanctions for institutions that fail to register children, as well as the lack of a mandatory framework for documenting the identities of children admitted into welfare homes, has contributed to the problem.
To address the gap, Oladejo recommended the introduction of an “Exit Identity Package,” under which no child or young person would leave institutional care without a birth certificate or attestation of birth and a National Identification Number.
She also called for regular identity documentation audits across registered childcare institutions and the deployment of mobile birth registration and NIN enrolment services to welfare homes throughout the state.
Oladejo said the proposed reforms would ensure that children leaving institutional care possess the legal identity documents required to access education, healthcare, employment, banking services and other government programmes.
